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Thursday, September 18, 2008

dish towels & cloths

I happened upon this little project quite by accident. I found some waffle weave muslin at JoAnn's in the remnant bin and I chucked it into my cart thinking I could use it for something.I'm so glad that I did! It works perfectly for dish towels and dish cloths.

For a dish cloth:cut one piece of waffle weave muslin 10" squarecut a piece of fabric (plain old cotton) 2.5" x width of fabric (42")fold in half lengthwise and ironthis will be used for bindingusing a walking foot, attach the binding to the square as you would quilt bindingit should look something like thishand stitch the binding to the back and you are done!

for the dishtowel, use the same technique but cut a rectangle 17" x 21" from the waffle weave muslin and cut 2 strips of binding fabric instead of onea few things about this project:

I am not a pre-washer, normally. I did pre-wash the muslin, but I let it air dry. After I used the towel, I washed it and then dried it in the dryer. It shrunk quite a bit. The yellow one was washed and dried. The red one is the original size.I was surprised that it shrunk so much. So, my word of advice is to wash AND dry the fabric in the dryer before cutting the muslin. I did not pre-wash my binding strips.

And one more thing...if you have an aversion to binding, (I do not) this project is not for you.

I can see doing a whole stack of these for a stand-by gift, because everyone needs dish towels. And if you need dish towels, why not make them pretty, right? And how cute would it be to make some of these for each season?

I am planning to make many, many more of these. Lucky for me, I like binding. :)

65 comments:

These are great! And I really enjoy hand-stitching binding for some reason too. You go girl! I'll have to make these for some folks, since I still have tons and tons of dishtowels from wedding gifts 11 years ago....gotta find me some of that discount waffle weave! I don't have much luck at my Joann's remnant bin, but there IS always the coupon....Thanks!

I've always enjoyed binding also. I have some waffle weave muslin that I found recently but I don't want to use it up - there's something about it I love so much - I just want to keep it in my stash forever. Ridiculous, I know.

Can I just say that you are one Crazy Quiltin' Mama? I just found your blog about 2 weeks ago and I'm going nuts because I want to try all of these projects and I just can't get enough time. I have learned so much. Keep these crazy tutorials comin'.

A walking foot is an attachment for your sewing machine that enables smoother sewing when using several layers or fabric. It provides an extra bit of hold from the top that works with the feed dogs below the fabric, pushing the fabric during the sewing process. It "walks" the fabric. It also works well with slippery fabrics that may need control not available with the feed dogs only.

(i copied that little blurb from an about sewing website. I couldn't describe it nearly as well.)

amandathese are great!! i was just at my joann's tonight but I just might have to go back tomorrow and get some with my coupon...I just love all the tutorials you are doing, I might even be done with Christmas gifts before halloween thanks to you.

Cute! I love this! And y'know, I never knew there was such a thing as waffle weave muslin so you learn something new every day! lol! These would make great gifts...an apron, some dish towels and a pot holder set....

Hey Amanda! I am absolutely LOVING your tutorials! I'm planning on making a set of your bins for my kids' teachers for Christmas.

I love the dishtowels, but binding is not my friend. I think its because I've never actually been taught a "proper" stitch. I always just wing it. Your tutorials make so much sense to me, I feel as if you are right here talking to me ~ do you think you'd ever care to do a quick, basic binding "how to"?

Your blog is amazing! So many wonderful tutorials!! Thanks for sharing all your creativity and experience!I've added your link in my blog, hope you don`t mind. If you don't like the idea please let me know.Hugs!

Once again I am amazed at your tutorials! You are the reason I finally bought a sewing machine and started my first quilt!

2 quick questions. I've never made it to the binding on a quilt. Why do you have to hand stitch the back? Also, if I don't have a walking foot, will the standard foot work? I assume with the texture of waffle weave walking is better, but that's another $35 I can't spare at the moment. Thanks for the inspiration! These will make great X-mas gifts.

Oh, those are cute! And now I have something to do with the rest of my waffle-weave!!Last year, I found it and got the idea to make burp rags for the coming baby. I didn't wash it beforehand and they shrunk considerably when I did wash them. I did the binding by wrapping the edges and sewing both front and back on at once with a zig-zag stitch. That worked alright, but it was a pain to pin it all on. That waffle weave is tricky stuff! So next time I have the time, I'm going to make wash cloths like you and do the binding quilting-style.

These are great, I'm going to have to try some of these. Thanks for the idea and tutorial. I was also wondering if you could do a tutorial on how to square up your quilt after you have quilted it? You know when you have extra batting and backing material hanging off the edges. I really struggle with this part of quilting. I don't know why, maybe I'm doing it out of order. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

about the binding...traditional double fold binding (found on most quilts) is first machine stitched on the quilt and then the binding is wrapped around the back and whip stitched by hand into place on the back of the quilt. this hides all the raw edges.

I think that this project could be done without a walking foot...give it a shot.

You always have so many fun projects! One of them inspired a gift I got in the mail from Carol at giraffedreams.blogspot.com, so I am particularly grateful for your creativity inspiring other. Thanks for sharing!

Over the weekend I made two of these waffle weave towels. After reading your blog I first washed and dried it in the dryer and then when cutting I used the waffle's as a guide so they would be straight. The first one I did the binding by hand and the 2nd one I just did a zig zag. Great idea! Now I am wondering what else we could use this fabric for. I as thinking it would make a great scarf. thanks for your idea!

Awesome! I was just at Joann's and remembered your tutorial...I looked in the remnant bin and sure enough, there was some waffle weave muslin, 1/2 yard for $1.43! I love doing binding so this is perfect, thank you sooo much!

These are just adorable. A couple years ago, a blog friend made me some lovely dish towels using the same type of towel, adding a cute little patchwork strip detail to one end. I use it all the time. The little splash of color makes it my favorite kitchen towel. I can totally see myself making these.

If you like to "upcycle" you could make these with old cotton sweaters from the thrift store (or your closet). I serge around the knit and then crochet a pretty edging. You could probably bind them if you used a lightweight stretchy fabric.